Green Bean!

Green Bean! Green Bean!

By Patricia Thomas; illus. by Trina L. Hunner

32 pages; ages 4 – 9

Dawn Publications, 2016

It's getting close to gardening season...

Theme: gardening, growing

Opening:

Green bean. Green bean.

And freckles and speckles.

     Freckles and speckles.

     Soon a root and a shoot 

From seed to sprout to plant, this is the story of how beans grow and survive to adult “bean-hood”. 

What I like: The structure. For example, here’s a short bit about the stems growing up a trellis of poles:

Wind roars. Rain pours.

But staked tight, stands right.

            Staked tight, stands right.

            But rabbit could grab it.

I love the way that each page starts with the last line from the previous page.

Beyond the Book:  The girl in this story planted scarlet runner pole beans. There are many kinds of pole beans - I plant rattlesnake beans. Look through a seed catalog for interesting or unusual bean names.

Bean seeds are beautiful  - some are speckled, some splattered like a"paint" pony, and some look like penguins. Cut out pictures of bean seeds and make a collage. OR use bean seeds and other seeds to make art.

Watch seeds sprout. Put different kinds of seeds on a damp paper towel. Slide that into a plastic bag (a gallon ziplock is perfect) and watch them begin to sprout and grow roots. Look at them with a magnifying lens - and draw what you see.

Grow a Book Nook – a shady place to read or nap in the heat of summer. You can grow one by making a tipi trellis of long poles. Plant pole bean seeds around the base of the tipi. As they grow, help them “find” your tipi frame.

Today we're joining PPBF (perfect picture book Friday), an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill'ssite. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copy provided by the publisher.